Mercedes doesn’t want mega-plant like BMW’s

BMW Plant Spartanburg overtook Dingolfing, Germany as the largest BMW plant in the world with more than 450,000 vehicles produced annually. But its rival in Stuttgart …

BMW Plant Spartanburg overtook Dingolfing, Germany as the largest BMW plant in the world with more than 450,000 vehicles produced annually. But its rival in Stuttgart has no intention to follow BMW’s steps, arguing mega-plants are too unwieldy to manage.

Mercedes’ Vance plant in Alabama, is already at its ideal size, say executives, having produced 310,000 vehicles last year. This made it one of Mercedes’ largest plants alongside Bremen, Rastatt and Sindelfingen in Germany, and Beijing Benz.

Workers in Vance still will be building more cars since part of the new investment will go into a logistics hub that will ship complete knockdown kits to overseas markets, including Thailand, Indonesia, Russia, Vietnam and India. The Vance factory is on a very short list of sites that will build both its EQ line of electric vehicles and battery packs.

The BMW Group has invested eight billion US dollars in the Spartanburg location to date and produced around 3.9 million vehicles since going online on 8 September 1994. “From 2018 to 2021 we will invest further 600 million US dollars in manufacturing infrastructure for future generations of the BMW X models”, said Harald Krüger.

Around 70 percent of the vehicles produced in Spartanburg are exported to more than 140 countries worldwide.